Hanger for continuous enameling furnaces



sePt- 8, 1931- J. o'F. CLARK 1,822,012

HANGER FOR CONTINUOUS ENAMELING FURNACES Filed Aug. 5. 1929 Patented Sept. 8, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOHN OFALLON CLARK, F UNIVERSITY CITY, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO AMERICAN MANGANESE STEEL COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF MAINE yHANGER FOR CONTINOUS ENAMELING FURNACES This invention relates to hangers through means of which objects can, with convenience and security, be temporarily supported upon endless chain conveyors, for instance, hangers with knife edge hooks employed as parts i of a conveying system in a continuous enameling furnace, in the use of which objects doped with vitreous surfacing material have to be mounted upon the conveyor for passage through the fusing zone of a furnace and left 'readily removable as the objects, under continuous travel of the conveyor, reach a predetermined point beyond the discharge end of the furnace.

Hangers of the kind described, by reason of the severe conditions encountered in use, require frequent removal from the endless conveyor for treatment or repair of their supy porting hooks, for instance, for regrinding the knife edges, to fit them for supporting the objects Without impairment of their enamel. Heretofore, in removing and replacing hangers in conveyors of this kind, it has been necessary to arrest the travel of the conveyor and unbolt or unrivet each hanger when necessary to remove it from the conveyor, and this caused frequent interruption of the enameling work, loss of time, etc.

. The present invention has for its object to provide a construction of hanger as well as the conveyor element by which the hanger is supported, which will admit of removal of the hanger and its safe replacement by simple manipulation. with minimum expenditure of time, and, if desired, even without interrupting the travel of the conveyor; so that keeping the hangers of the conveyor in efficient condition involves an operation not greatly unlike the procedure of putting on and taking off the lgoods that are to be enamupon the principle of having the hanger, with any suitable equipment of hooks, supported on a bar of the conveyor through means which bv the mere act of manually presenting the hanger to the bar, will automatically cause the hanger to be interlocked with the bar against rotation. downward swinging, or longitudinal withdrawal, and, in short, against any movement that would thereto. eled; and to this end, the invention proceeds A conventional Application led August 3, 1929. Serial No. 383,204.

tend to mar the enameling material by disturbance of the object on its knife edge support.

Another object of the invention is to provide a construction of hanger and supporting bar which can be made of shaped metal that is standard in materials best suited for the purpose, for instance, alloys highly resistant to extreme temperatures, and particularly` metal of quadrilateral section, such as flat bars or the like; to which end, the preferred embodiment of the invention proceeds upon the principle of forming the supporting bar with non-circular openings through it, suitable for receiving and conforming to the section of the hanger, and so fashioning the hanger that it may be intruded through such opening in the barV and enter into bearing with the rear side of the bar through means of a yshoulder on the hanger that -seats above the opening, and on the forward side of the bar through means of a shoulder that seats below the opening, Vthereby holding the hanger against rotation, drooping downwardly, or displacement longitudinally relatively to the bar.

In the accompanyingl drawings, in which the construction and application of the hangler and its supporting bar are shown in preferred form- V Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section lof part of a treating furnace of standard constructiomtcgether with an endless convevor mounted therein;

Figure 2 is a detail view showing a section of a supporting bar and two hangers mounted therein; and f Figure 3 is a view of the parts shown in Figure 2 seen from a direction at right angles A represents a heat treating furnace of I construction. 1 represents hanger bars forming parts of an endless conveyor system of which 2 represents carrier links and 3 the supporting track in which the links travel.

As shown more clearly in Figures 2 and 3, bars 1 are constructed with transverse openings 4 of such shape that Ythey will conforml aproximately to the quadrilateral section of' 100 hangers 5, each of which is in the form of an arm fashioned to provide hooks convenient for the service intended of them, for instance, integral hooks 6, 7, upon which objects, after being doped with vitreous material, are hung for passage through the heating Zone of the furnace. In order to mount the hanger 5 on the bar l quickly and by mere manipulation of the hanger itself so that the hangers can be applied and removed with minimum or no interruption of the endless conveyor, each hanger 5 is fashioned at its portion which is intruded through the opening 4, with a shoulder 8 adapted to enter into bearing with that face of the bar l which is in rear of the hanger and at a point above the opening 4 in said bar, and with a shoulder 9 that is adapted to seat against or enter into bearing with that face of the bar l which is forward with respect to the hanger 5 and at a point below the opening 4, so that while the intruded portion of the hanger 5 fits within the opening 4 with sufficient snugness to prevent twisting or turning about the longitudinal axis of the bar 5, it may enter freely within the opening 4, so long as the hanger 5 is held in an upwardly inclined position, but upon being released will drop to its horizontal or other selected angular relation and be arrested therein by the seating of the shoulders 8 and 9, and by said shoulders held against drooping below the intended angle and against withdrawal longitudinally from the bar.

By curving the surfaces of the deflection of the hanger 5 in the development of shoulders 8 and 9, and correspondingly rounding the defining surfaces of the opening 4, it is merely necessary to intrude the end of a hanger into the opening and release it, when it will automatically assume its intended position -an operation which can be readily performed when a repaired hanger in cold state is being returned to the conveyor; and a hot hanger can be removed quite as easily by merely engaging it with a convenient instrument, for instance, engaging it in rear of the depending hook 7 and giving it an upward swing, accompanied by a forward pull, when it will drop out and leave the opening accessible for immediate introduction of a repaired hanger.

I claim:

l. A hanger arm for conveyors of the character described, comprising a short insert-ing portion adapted to pass through an opening in a supporting member, and shoulders on said inserting portion spaced apart to bring them, when the arm is inserted, on opposite sides of and, respectively, above and below the opening, said arm having a portion extending downwardly so low and so close to the inserting portion that a force exerted in a single direction on said downwardly extending portion will dislodge said arm.

2. In a furnace for subjecting objects to high temperatures, a conveyor including a supporting bar having a plurality of openings therein, a hanger in each opening, each hanger comprising a portion passing through said opening, a shoulder below said opening on one side, a shoulder above said opening on the other side and an outward extension on the side of said lower shoulder, said lower shoulders and extensions being alternately on opposite sides of said supporting bar.

3. In a furnace for subjecting objects to high temperatures, a conveyor including a supporting bar having a plurality of openings therein, a hanger in each opening, each hanger comprising a portion passing through said opening, a shoulder below said opening on one side, a shoulder above saidH opening on the other side, and an outward extension on the side of said lower shoulder; each of said hangers having, on its outward extension, a depending arm rigid with said extension, reaching below the shoulder that/ 

